Sausages do Sizzle

For the first time in about 10 years I went camping last weekend. It looked good on paper but in my mind, camping equipment when camping is not just desirable but quite essential and given that we have none, I had a few reservations about the weekend. BC (before children) I used to camp often and even spent 6 months travelling around Australia in a tent. Lake Leschenaultia in the hills of Perth was our destination this time and my concerns upon arrival about what we didn’t have was replaced with the undeniable fact that it didn’t matter. Whats not to like about spending time with friends in the bush relaxing, toasting marshmallows in the fire and listening to the wildlife (and hoping that your children don’t get bitten by a snake while crashing around in said bush)? Of course, one of the cornerstones of camping is the bush BBQ and naturally sausages do find their way onto the plate. They smell SO good. So good in fact that my friend, lets call him Dave, estimated that at a leisurely pace he clocked up around 20 sausages in a 24 hour period, over a lunch, dinner and breakfast. I gave him 10 out of 10 for the sheer endurance of it and as Dave is built like a racehorse so I am not entirely sure where they went. Despite their glorious smell on a summers day in Australia, I try not to eat them too often because sadly they are not usually bags of goodness. Lets take a look at a couple of varieties (per one sausage each weighing approx. 70 grams). Thin beef sausage 752 kJ 12.5g fat (5.9g saturated)Woolworths Beef Heart Smart 538 kJ 7.4g fat (3.1g saturated)Chicken 605 kJ 8.5g fat (2.7g saturated) Those little sausages do pack a punch in the fat and kilojoule stakes plus they have a good dose of salt too. Just as a marker it helps to know that 8700kJ is the day’s average intake for an Australian adult (averaged across women and men of all ages and activity levels). This is the total of all you consume over each entire day including all food and drinks. Of course not everybody fits into the ‘average’ category, but it gives you a ballpark figure to work with when deciding on whether you want to try and beat Dave at the sausage game.

I have a favourite dish that I cook in winter using chevups or the Peppercorn or Woolworths branded extra lean sausages (there are ones that are labelled Italian or Asian herbs and spices).

I choose these over regular sausages because the labels show they have a lower KJ, fat and sodium count – I try to look for less than 400mg of sodium per 100g (I think that’s right?).

We had a farewell BBQ for my brother a couple of weeks ago before he went back to the UK and even though I’d taken my own chicken and salad, I couldn’t resist a couple of regular sausages – why are they so moreish?

Great question Lauren. One Chev-up weighs around 50 grams so after adjusting the weight to 70g (almost 1.5 Chev-ups) to be equal to the others mentioned in the blog, they contain 525kJ, 5.7g fat (2.7g saturated) and around 2/3 of the salt content of regular sausages. The kJ content of Chev-ups is similar to the Woolies Heart Smart beef sausage but with slightly less total and saturated fat. Plus they are super tasty! But it is best to breathe around anyone for a few hours after eating them….. Moreish indeed they are.